AVS › AVS Forum › Other Areas of Interest › What's Your System Configuration › BrolicBeast's Living Room Theater
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

BrolicBeast's Living Room Theater - Page 48

post #1411 of 1867
1/28/13 at 7:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrolicBeast View Post

I know the Music Vault is your primary source, but if you have any computers with video files, it's certainly worth a shot. How do you control Jriver now? JRemote? or Gizmo? Another route?

JRemote and it works well. I previously used MonkeyTunes and JRemote is much better and much faster. Much. Gizmo only work on non-Apple devices according to the article you referenced. The Music Vault supports Bluray (I think) and it uses a Bluray reader for loading music, and it has HDMI out, so I guess I could acquire some of the software and try the movie deal. I will call SoundScience and ask about trying a movie. My primary reservation about a movie server is the incredible amount of time it would take to load even just my Blurays that I have any interest in watching again. I have over 500 DVD's plus Blurays and at an hour each, I would be about 300 years old before I actually got it all done.
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #1412 of 1867
1/28/13 at 8:05am
Thanks to Craig and Dennis, we have a plan all in place for me to use the media server and the Crowson. I am getting what we talked about server wise because I don't want to build anything and I really don't have space for a big server. The new OPPO players will allow me to set everything up the I need it so when the time gets closer, I will upgrade to a newer version of the OPPO.
Reply
Reply
post #1413 of 1867
1/28/13 at 8:37am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by audioguy View Post

JRemote and it works well. I previously used MonkeyTunes and JRemote is much better and much faster. Much. Gizmo only work on non-Apple devices according to the article you referenced. The Music Vault supports Bluray (I think) and it uses a Bluray reader for loading music, and it has HDMI out, so I guess I could acquire some of the software and try the movie deal. I will call SoundScience and ask about trying a movie. My primary reservation about a movie server is the incredible amount of time it would take to load even just my Blurays that I have any interest in watching again. I have over 500 DVD's plus Blurays and at an hour each, I would be about 300 years old before I actually got it all done.


Yeah I hear you. I have about 320 blu rays and I will NOT be ripping all of those. I've decided that I will only rip reference discs and leave the "just for fun" discs on the blu rsy shelf. So, Total Recall and Transformers? Yes. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 27 Dresses (kill me now)? Not so much. Lol

I'd love to know what SoundScience tells you about Music Vault's blu ray capabilities. They seem to have mastered the art of Ripping, and taking it further with Blu Ray would be a major incentive to pursue one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MIkeDuke View Post

Thanks to Craig and Dennis, we have a plan all in place for me to use the media server and the Crowson. I am getting what we talked about server wise because I don't want to build anything and I really don't have space for a big server. The new OPPO players will allow me to set everything up the I need it so when the time gets closer, I will upgrade to a newer version of the OPPO.

Yup, I'm running 5.1 through one of the new Oppo's HDMI input and the sound is great. I just need to make a small upgrade in order to enable high-res blu ray soundtracks because right now the machine is hardware-limited to plain old dolby and dts. High res audio is passed through the Oppo so the Crowsons don't miss a beat. Which Oppo are you Getting? If the upgrade is solely for media server (or Beast Server, as I call it) integration, then the 103 is probably the best route...but, for future music expansion, the 105 can't be beat.
Reply
Reply
post #1414 of 1867
1/28/13 at 9:46am
Well, I am not going out tomorrow and doing it but I will probably get the 103. I don't feel like adding balanced interconnects back into my system. The HDMI connection is good enough for me. I am still impressed with how good the OPPO sounds with music. I don't know what other further music expansion I would need.
Reply
Reply
post #1415 of 1867
1/28/13 at 9:32pm
Hi guys. yes, the 103 should do everything you need it to, Mike. I'm anxious to get going with "the Beast" media server as well. Like the others, I will only put the best blu-rays into the hard drives, and use the Oppo for the rest of the discs I have, including SACDs. But, I will probably rip my whole music library into the server for easy access, since it doesn't take up near as much space as the blurays do.

The other thing we should look into is cloud backup storage options. I think Crashplan is like $60 a year for unlimited storage. Much cheaper than buying extra hard drives.
Reply
Reply
post #1416 of 1867
1/28/13 at 9:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrolicBeast View Post

Yeah I hear you. I have about 320 blu rays and I will NOT be ripping all of those. I've decided that I will only rip reference discs and leave the "just for fun" discs on the blu rsy shelf. So, Total Recall and Transformers? Yes. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 27 Dresses (kill me now)? Not so much. Lol

I'd love to know what SoundScience tells you about Music Vault's blu ray capabilities. They seem to have mastered the art of Ripping, and taking it further with Blu Ray would be a major incentive to pursue one.
Yup, I'm running 5.1 through one of the new Oppo's HDMI input and the sound is great. I just need to make a small upgrade in order to enable high-res blu ray soundtracks because right now the machine is hardware-limited to plain old dolby and dts. High res audio is passed through the Oppo so the Crowsons don't miss a beat. Which Oppo are you Getting? If the upgrade is solely for media server (or Beast Server, as I call it) integration, then the 103 is probably the best route...but, for future music expansion, the 105 can't be beat.

Lol everyone says they will only rip a few discs when they get their media server lol. I did and eventually ended up ripping over 1500 discs lol...painful but worth it in the end!

If your hesitant on buying more drives why not go with raid 5? I personally go with 1 for 1 back ups, very expensive but in the case of a movie night I can easily just plug in the drive in minutes and get the movie going again if something horrible happens. Done that a few times already lol. Regarding cloud backing up, you would need one hefty and unlimited data connection to upload all your ripped BD isos or MKVs (I rip to mkvs since I don't use menus)
Reply
Reply
post #1417 of 1867
1/28/13 at 9:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMark1 View Post

The other thing we should look into is cloud backup storage options. I think Crashplan is like $60 a year for unlimited storage. Much cheaper than buying extra hard drives.

That is an interesting idea. While my server has dual 2 terabyte raid drives, I also have mine backed up on an external hard drive that I keep here and also make another copy (about 3 hours with a USB 3 hard drive at a cost of about $100.00) and send it to an audio friend of mine. What I like about your idea is that I won't have to remember to back up my collection when I add new music.

Raid drives are, unfortunately, not crash proof!
Reply
Reply
post #1418 of 1867
1/28/13 at 9:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin View Post

Lol everyone says they will only rip a few discs when they get their media server lol. I did and eventually ended up ripping over 1500 discs lol...painful but worth it in the end!

If your hesitant on buying more drives why not go with raid 5? I personally go with 1 for 1 back ups, very expensive but in the case of a movie night I can easily just plug in the drive in minutes and get the movie going again if something horrible happens. Done that a few times already lol. Regarding cloud backing up, you would need one hefty and unlimited data connection to upload all your ripped BD isos or MKVs (I rip to mkvs since I don't use menus)

I have ripped all of my music (about 1100 CD's) but I'm still trying to get my arms around the real value of having my movies loaded on a server. Unlike music, where I might only listen to a few songs and then switch CD's, I put on a movie and spend the next couple of hours watching. Certainly the "cool factor" would be nice, but I'm not sure how really practical it is (other than not having to put up with the typical 97 previews on each disc!!)
Reply
Reply
post #1419 of 1867
1/28/13 at 10:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by audioguy View Post

I have ripped all of my music (about 1100 CD's) but I'm still trying to get my arms around the real value of having my movies loaded on a server. Unlike music, where I might only listen to a few songs and then switch CD's, I put on a movie and spend the next couple of hours watching. Certainly the "cool factor" would be nice, but I'm not sure how really practical it is (other than not having to put up with the typical 97 previews on each disc!!)


Ahh yea that's where our viewing habits are different. For me, I usually come home from work and like to watch multiple different scenes from movies depending on my mood. Don't get me wrong though I stil; watch the film in its entirety once in awhile lol
Reply
Reply
post #1420 of 1867
1/28/13 at 10:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by audioguy View Post

I have ripped all of my music (about 1100 CD's) but I'm still trying to get my arms around the real value of having my movies loaded on a server. Unlike music, where I might only listen to a few songs and then switch CD's, I put on a movie and spend the next couple of hours watching. Certainly the "cool factor" would be nice, but I'm not sure how really practical it is (other than not having to put up with the typical 97 previews on each disc!!)

Im still deciding wether to go the media centre route. 600+ blu rays is alot to do and for me at the moment its just easier to pop the disc in.
Reply
Reply
post #1421 of 1867
1/28/13 at 10:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Franin View Post

Im still deciding wether to go the media centre route. 600+ blu rays is alot to do and for me at the moment its just easier to pop the disc in.

If you just put pop in your movies and watch the whole thing thru than I wouldn't recommend a media server. Like I said earlier, I like using my mouse to get to certain parts of films and always watch different scenes from different films in one setting. Using a BD player with that kind of viewing habit is just plain out annoying. But if you just watch films instead of "clips" like me than it's not worth the hassle of setting up a media server for movies. Potential hard drive failures and such are never fun to deal with it.
Reply
Reply
post #1422 of 1867
1/28/13 at 10:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin View Post

If you just put pop in your movies and watch the whole thing thru than I wouldn't recommend a media server. Like I said earlier, I like using my mouse to get to certain parts of films and always watch different scenes from different films in one setting. Using a BD player with that kind of viewing habit is just plain out annoying. But if you just watch films instead of "clips" like me than it's not worth the hassle of setting up a media server for movies. Potential hard drive failures and such are never fun to deal with it.

I think your right there pokekevin. I usually watch a movie a night and dont think I want to take the risk of hard drive failure. Though as mentioned before on this thread there is a cool factor involved when turning on system and seeing movie covers on screen and choosing the film you would like to watch.
Reply
Reply
post #1423 of 1867
1/28/13 at 10:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Franin View Post

I think your right there pokekevin. I usually watch a movie a night and dont think I want to take the risk of hard drive failure. Though as mentioned before on this thread there is a cool factor involved when turning on system and seeing movie covers on screen and choosing the film you would like to watch.

Yea the first few months I had mine it was like getting new trading/collectable cards everyday biggrin.gif:D:D
Reply
Reply
post #1424 of 1867
1/29/13 at 3:34am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin View Post

For me, I usually come home from work and like to watch multiple different scenes from movies depending on my mood. Don't get me wrong though I stil; watch the film in its entirety once in awhile lol

I've been doing this a lot lately....I thought I was the only one. Lol.....in-between heavy-hitter blu ray releases, it's great to re-live my favorite scenes this way. Time is a premium for me though--I'm thinking about ripping and creating my own blu ray demo file with my favorite scenes. I may just stop there, but for audio, a media server Is now a must have for me. I'll never be without JRiver again.
Reply
Reply
post #1425 of 1867
1/29/13 at 3:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DMark1 View Post

Hi guys. yes, the 103 should do everything you need it to, Mike. I'm anxious to get going with "the Beast" media server as well. Like the others, I will only put the best blu-rays into the hard drives, and use the Oppo for the rest of the discs I have, including SACDs. But, I will probably rip my whole music library into the server for easy access, since it doesn't take up near as much space as the blurays do.

The other thing we should look into is cloud backup storage options. I think Crashplan is like $60 a year for unlimited storage. Much cheaper than buying extra hard drives.

Hey Dennis,

I never thought about cloud-based storage for media storage. Although I'd bulk up on hard drive space since I record and store hours of video anyway from my camcorder, I still like the idea of cloud storage. I might use HDD and cloud-based together. It shouldn't be any more complicated than leaving a computer alone for 48 hours while it uploads its TB of data. Additionally, I could use a more cost-efficient RAID system. Right now I'm on JBOD because I don't have significant amounts of media stored yet. $60? we all probably spend that on junk food in a year, and since I cut out junk food last month (2013: Year of the 8-pack)....it evens out. Thanks for the idea!
Reply
Reply
post #1426 of 1867
1/29/13 at 5:18am
First, I have no life so I will probably rip everything onto the server smile.gif. I really don't care how long it takes. For me, the idea is to get all of my media racks out of my room, Second, as far as the cloud goes, I am worried about that. You would need a solid internet connection all the time and I don't want to put my faith in that. Te way I am setup, even if if my area looses power and internet capabilities, my system will still run. But if something like that happens and the internet goes down, I am out of luck. I will be doing hard drives for everything. Most of you guys have way more BR's then I do right now. I have about 110+ BR's, I think and probably another 300 regular DVD's. The whole idea for me is to have EVERYTHING at my finger tips like my friend has on his server. I mean, it's a fair chunk of change to get this only put what I think are the best movies on here. I don't care how long it takes. Plus, I really don't have THAT many CD's either. It will probably end up being way less then most people here. So anyway, that's what I think.
Edited by MIkeDuke - 1/29/13 at 5:48am
Reply
Reply
post #1427 of 1867
1/29/13 at 6:33am
Hi all,

Matt,

With that new idea in mind of using th JRiver, where does that leaves the Sonos setup, is it complementary?

Although I would not RIP my BRs to have everythin on a HDD I have done this with all my DVDs and I use my Dune player to stream my movies from the QNAP NAS. I really like the simplicity of the usage.
Reply
Reply
post #1428 of 1867
1/29/13 at 6:57am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aldiallo View Post

Hi all,

Matt,

With that new idea in mind of using th JRiver, where does that leaves the Sonos setup, is it complementary?

Although I would not RIP my BRs to have everythin on a HDD I have done this with all my DVDs and I use my Dune player to stream my movies from the QNAP NAS. I really like the simplicity of the usage.

Hey Al,

Oh no, I still use and love my Sonos. That amazing system gets me music in literally every room of my house except the bathroom (working on getting a weather-proof speaker to change that). But, for critical listening of my high-resolution FLAC files that my Sonos can’t play, as I relax in the theater, I’ll definitely use Jriver. I still have the Sonos connected to my Cambridge Audio DAC Magic (the Oppo’s DAC’s didn’t get rid of the Sonos’ Audio delay) and I use it when seamless play is desired.

I’ve been hearing about Dune for a while, but have never seen one in action. How is the interface? (Sleek? Functional? Utilitarian?)
Reply
Reply
post #1429 of 1867
1/29/13 at 6:59am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MIkeDuke View Post

First, I have no life so I will probably rip everything onto the server smile.gif. I really don't care how long it takes. For me, the idea is to get all of my media racks out of my room, Second, as far as the cloud goes, I am worried about that. You would need a solid internet connection all the time and I don't want to put my faith in that. Te way I am setup, even if if my area looses power and internet capabilities, my system will still run. But if something like that happens and the internet goes down, I am out of luck. I will be doing hard drives for everything. Most of you guys have way more BR's then I do right now. I have about 110+ BR's, I think and probably another 300 regular DVD's. The whole idea for me is to have EVERYTHING at my finger tips like my friend has on his server. I mean, it's a fair chunk of change to get this only put what I think are the best movies on here. I don't care how long it takes. Plus, I really don't have THAT many CD's either. It will probably end up being way less then most people here. So anyway, that's what I think.

Totally understandable. The cloud-based storage is only for back-up purposes only though. It’s definitely not for streaming directly through J-river. That would bog down other internet functions, and I, for one, will not risk my internet speeds—I can’t survive without Hulu Plus and HBO Go smile.gif ) Oh wow, you’re definitely going all-in with the media storage. Eh? Well a benefit of that is removing the racks might get you even better measurements, although I know your current measurements are great. I think Pokekevin is right though—I will likely all end up loading everything, even if it takes time. If there were any college kids who I trusted around my gear, I would consider paying one to rip all my blu rays for me while I’m out the house, but, I don’t know anyone I can use that’s trustworthy. Or maybe……maybe I can mod my system with a few external drives and rip 4 at a time.. At 5 hours a weekend, that’s 20 blu rays a weekend, which would take about 16 weekends to complete…..man, now I want to rip it all!!!
Reply
Reply
post #1430 of 1867
1/29/13 at 7:44am
I figure if I spending the money and the time, why not spend the extra time to do it right biggrin.gif. If it's on the server, then I am good to go. I mean there may be just a few regular DVD's that I won't put on simply because I hardly watch them. But most of my stuff is going on and all of my BR's will be going on. I just want to be able to pick up my tablet, hit a button, and just sit back and enjoy. Plus, one more thing, I have a series that has over 300 episodes and they may be adding more in the future. It will great when I don't have change disks after every 25 episodes and everything is in one place. So yea, I am going all out.
Edited by MIkeDuke - 1/29/13 at 8:08am
Reply
Reply
post #1431 of 1867
1/29/13 at 8:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrolicBeast View Post

Hey Al,

Oh no, I still use and love my Sonos. That amazing system gets me music in literally every room of my house except the bathroom (working on getting a weather-proof speaker to change that). But, for critical listening of my high-resolution FLAC files that my Sonos can’t play, as I relax in the theater, I’ll definitely use Jriver. I still have the Sonos connected to my Cambridge Audio DAC Magic (the Oppo’s DAC’s didn’t get rid of the Sonos’ Audio delay) and I use it when seamless play is desired.

I’ve been hearing about Dune for a while, but have never seen one in action. How is the interface? (Sleek? Functional? Utilitarian?)
Mattt,

I see that I'm not the only one annoyed by the non support of HR files but still love the capabilities of having music all around the house, but I won't jump to get the music in the bathroom! biggrin.gif

The Dune's interface depends on what you like, I use DuneX as it's run under MacOSX, but you have several other front-ends that run under windows like Yadis, My Movies, etc, so it's up to the user to define what interface they're willing to use. cool.gif
Reply
Reply
post #1432 of 1867
1/29/13 at 8:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrolicBeast View Post

Totally understandable. The cloud-based storage is only for back-up purposes only though. It’s definitely not for streaming directly through J-river. That would bog down other internet functions, and I, for one, will not risk my internet speeds—I can’t survive without Hulu Plus and HBO Go smile.gif ) Oh wow, you’re definitely going all-in with the media storage. Eh? Well a benefit of that is removing the racks might get you even better measurements, although I know your current measurements are great. I think Pokekevin is right though—I will likely all end up loading everything, even if it takes time. If there were any college kids who I trusted around my gear, I would consider paying one to rip all my blu rays for me while I’m out the house, but, I don’t know anyone I can use that’s trustworthy. Or maybe……maybe I can mod my system with a few external drives and rip 4 at a time.. At 5 hours a weekend, that’s 20 blu rays a weekend, which would take about 16 weekends to complete…..man, now I want to rip it all!!!
hahahaha! I feel you mate, I definitely do as I myself have already started to look for a bigger NAS where I could hold 8 4To disks and I've found what I was looking for with the synology DS1812+ which is also expandable in case I need more space.

I currently have an online backup using my current Qnap NAS cloud backup feature using Symform which gives you several types of rates including one for free if you share some of your free space on the NAS.
Reply
Reply
post #1433 of 1867
1/29/13 at 10:23am
One of our members in the Local HT group I'm in had his son rip all his BDs as a chore lol
Reply
Reply
post #1434 of 1867
1/30/13 at 12:24am
I'm sure that with a some time Matt can come up with something like this to get his medias ripped!!



or even this:

Reply
Reply
post #1435 of 1867
1/30/13 at 12:52am
or a backblaze server!
http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/
Reply
Reply
post #1436 of 1867
1/30/13 at 1:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin View Post

or a backblaze server!
http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/
Insane mate, insane!!
Edited by aldiallo - 1/30/13 at 2:41am
Reply
Reply
post #1437 of 1867
1/30/13 at 3:34am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aldiallo View Post

Mattt,

I see that I'm not the only one annoyed by the non support of HR files but still love the capabilities of having music all around the house, but I won't jump to get the music in the bathroom! biggrin.gif

The Dune's interface depends on what you like, I use DuneX as it's run under MacOSX, but you have several other front-ends that run under windows like Yadis, My Movies, etc, so it's up to the user to define what interface they're willing to use. cool.gif

Lol maybe the bathroom speaker is overkill. Lol....I still don't understand how Sonos can't play high res files while Logitech Squeezebox (inferior in all other ways, IMO) can. Its flabergasting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aldiallo View Post

hahahaha! I feel you mate, I definitely do as I myself have already started to look for a bigger NAS where I could hold 8 4To disks and I've found what I was looking for with the synology DS1812+ which is also expandable in case I need more space.

I currently have an online backup using my current Qnap NAS cloud backup feature using Symform which gives you several types of rates including one for free if you share some of your free space on the NAS.

Synology makes some pretty serious storage solutions. I currently have 7TB but could definitely see myself filling up a Synology server. That's a very interesting price option on the Qnap....share server space for reduced costs. I like it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin View Post

One of our members in the Local HT group I'm in had his son rip all his BDs as a chore lol

***calls girlfriend and explains diabolical plans for early offspring***
Quote:
Originally Posted by aldiallo View Post

I'm sure that with a some time Matt can come up with something like this to get his medias ripped!!



or even this:


Mercyyyyy.....I want one of each!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by aldiallo View Post

Insane mate, insane!!

I WANT TWO OF THESE!!!!!
Reply
Reply
post #1438 of 1867
1/30/13 at 3:53am
Thread Starter 
Out with the old (right), in with the new (left). It almost seems like a crime...

Reply
Reply
post #1439 of 1867
1/30/13 at 3:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pokekevin View Post

or a backblaze server!
http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/20/petabytes-on-a-budget-v2-0revealing-more-secrets/

Insane is exactly right. I don't even know what I'd do with 135TB of storage... all I know is I WANT it.
Reply
Reply
post #1440 of 1867
1/30/13 at 3:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrolicBeast View Post

Out with the old (right), in with the new (left). It almost seems like a crime...

yeap!! crime it is!!
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Other Areas of Interest › What's Your System Configuration › BrolicBeast's Living Room Theater